No Doubt Of Position

November 7, 1986

THE SENTINEL'S editorial -- ''A threat to real education'' -- left no doubt of the paper's far left position. The editorial says public education is threatened by the Tennessee District Court judge's decision that schools violate the Constitution when they require children to read books offensive to their religious beliefs.

The Sentinel's reference in the editorial to the influence of Christianity on the settlement and development of North America as a proper subject for history books belies the fundamental issue at stake -- values. By distilling Christianity down to its historical impact, as the Sentinel would have it, not only Christianity's, but all religions' fundamental belief in the spirit and non-physical aspect of man would be effectively eliminated.

The media mirror the materialistic viewpoint of the liberals. Through the use of ridicule over the last 40 years, personal values native to Americans (many of which are also Christian values), have all but vanished. I mean honor, patriotism, honesty, decency, chastity, virtue, personal ethics, responsibility, respect for the rights and property of others, the self- satisfaction of honest work, right and wrong, and a host of others.

The behavioral psychologists in the education system have substituted for the personal values the drab, material values of adequate shelter, food and medical attention. Without personal values to use as standards to guide their lives, young people follow any Pied Piper or fad.

Then the media carry the song of woe of the psychologists and educators: ''What shall we do about drugs, teen-age pregnancies, juvenile crime, school dropouts, disrespect for law and order and inability to read?''

Instead of capitalism, honest profit, free enterprise and related traditions being taught in today's schools, you will find social justice, social equality, government regulation and other group values taught.

The self-proclaimed, superior liberals are the unknowing pawns of the socialists and communists who have murdered and starved millions around the globe. Materialism is claiming the field on almost every front. The Orlando Sentinel is on the wrong side of this battleground.